Ok, so its really been a very very long time since I posted any thing, partly thats because I moved servers, upgraded php and for some strange reason every thing went tits up, was a while ago, but thinking about it I think I went from php4 to php 5.

Any way, long story short I killed the site, then I worked for sony, lets not talk about that though. 7 Exit points in one procedure is a bad idea and I don't care who says other wise, I will quite before I write shit. But, as me and sony don't see eye to eye on that I got a differant, and better job for Livenation.co.uk. It can be a touch frustraiting, and I fix a lot more bugs then I write, but its a job and the people are cool. I can't complain, well, not where any one can see it :-P

Thing is, after all this time I fixed the site, I still need to deal with the bots that spam the shit out of it from time to time, but it works once more, and now? I can't think of a lot to say. I could whitter on about what I've been doing, Livenation.co.uk, livenation.nl, and livenation.it, be and all kinds of others, but I wont. I'll come back later, when I have a few spare moments and tell the world about some of the books I've read in the last couple of months. Or maybe I'll post some more code.

Speaking of wich, I'm going to rewrite the whole site soon, I have a much better framework now. I call it Lizra, its a joke.... but its very cool, totaly xml driven to the point that Ive completely done away with any concept of a page form the php code, its just params to load xml page descriptions, that load templates, add moduals and generaly do every thing. Even the webservices are just a differant xml file calling the same modual object. I like it, seems to work really well though I still have much to do before its finnish.

Well, things have been bussy around here, and I've posted even less then I normaly do. But this is really starting to piss me off. Every weekend, my net connection magicly becomes unstable.

During the week, its fine. If a little slow but it at least stays connected. Friday night comes along and I'm lucky if it stays up for an hour.

Freedom2surf have to be one of the worst ISPs I've used. Not only did I have an unlimited account they one day desided to cap, they have speed caps on some ports, and some addresses. I know, I've got others to test and while they get 800K, I get 250. I have an 8 meg line, my flat is with in an maybe half a mile from the exchange and when I first got 8 meg it did do 800k.... but its getting slow and slower, if I have source, then I can get back up to speed but with in a couple of weeks. Its gone down.

Talking of going down, in the time its taken to type this, my connection has dropped again. Suddenly I have no internet connection at all, and I am not even doing any thing with it.

If any one is thinking of using f2s, I really really suggest you don't. They are just pipex under another name and I wouldn't touch them with some one elses. I left pipex for being rather shit, but had I know they owned freedom 2 surf then I would have gone some where else.

I'm can deal with the speed caps, but I can't cope with the line being dropped. Its not my line, thats perfect. I live near the exchange for a reason.... I'd love to play Fear right now, but whats the point? before I get warmed up I get disconnected.....

Now, if asked I would say there is one thing I collect, and that’s book. Mostly sci/fi, but others as well. So, there I was surfing around eBay for first editions (I like them, they make me happy) when I noticed a first edition of "When Gravity fails" by George Alec Effinger, I nearly had kittens, I love that book, but when my excitement calmed down, I realised I have that one already..... any way, that’s not really the point, I noticed under that "the Nick of Time", and not sure what that ones about I went over to Amazon....

What did I find? well, not the book because he never was an easy author to locate, but I did notice a menu item at the top of the books section. No, it’s not Sci/fi, or even fiction.... no, nothing like that, in fact, there are only your basic search, special offers and so on and this one item that gets my goat.

HARRY POTTER, now what the fuck? It’s not that good. Its defiantly not better then so many other authors work, but it’s there. Why? well, I have been thinking about this, I know a lot of people that say they have never read a book, then suddenly there is old harry, and every one is reading it. Why? well, as far as I can tell it’s because it’s a popular kids book, not because it’s any better.

I really don't get it. I read "Judas unchained" last week, damn good book. Now I'm reading the voyage of sable keech, and that’s good to. But no way will I ever be on a train and see 5 people reading either of them.

I think it says a lot if the only book you have read is for kids, can't you handle grown up writing? I mean come on, Harry Potter is hardly a new idea, a young boy from a poor back ground suddenly finds out he’s a powerful wizard? It’s about the most common fantasy plot. Magician by Raymond E Feist for instance, and that’s a quality read.

In the end I guess what it is that bothers me, is there are so many good authors, they try really hard and write new and interesting stuff, yet they never make much from it, they get by if they are lucky. Yet this thing, for reasons beyond me suddenly leaps from the children’s book shelf in to the hands of adults everywhere, not only that but there are "adult additions" and when I looked in to it, no that’s not with the bit where harry does whatever the girls name is.... or maybe that ginger guy? no, no, it’s just the cover, so when you’re on the train or whatever no one thinks your reading a KIDS BOOK!!!

In this artical http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4689386.stm it says:

"In the UK, where BT has revealed that its servers block 35,000 attempts to view child pornography each day"

Now that is just wrong, its the one time that I agree with censorship, it is digusting that 35000 people a day are trying to view that kind of nastiness. Any one that views, or tries to view that kind of content should be arrested, and jailed because if no one tried to view it, no one would bother to put it there.

I am, I have to say shocked and sickened by that. I didn't realise there where so many sick freaks out there. I mean, don't get me wrong. I have nothing against porn, but child porn isn't right, it very very wrong. I don't even understand how people can get off to it. I've never seen a child I think is sexy, and I can imagin what is in child porn and just thinking about it makes me feel ill.

So, I will say this, any one that gets off to an image of child abuse, because thats what it is, should be taken to a dark ally way and given a solid kicking before handing them over to the police. As for the people that make it? well, lets not bother the police with that, I have a cheaper, and longer lasting way to deal with them..... just dig a hole, place them in it, and then fill it back in. Job done.

I used to fairly much view most things that microsoft do in the "alls fair in love and war vain" but this one takes the piss.

A friend of mine tried to send me the url http://www.compfused.com/gallery.php?galleryid=1 over msn, and nothing happened, it was a little confuseing to say the least. because there he was talking about a url, that I just wans't seeing.

So we looked in to it, and it would seem that microsoft, have seen fit to block the sending of any url containing the words "download.php" or "gallery.php". What really gets my goat about that is that its fine with gallery.asp, and download.asp.

What the hell is with that? Its not related to the url, it is just any url with the file names in, it dosn't say any thing, it just blocks you, then to top it off after trying to send a number of urls, all totaly inocent and in no way requireing sensorship, in fact mostly made up, I have found my IP is now black listed, is that because of the urls? or just some strange coinicidence? I think not, but its a bit hard to say.

It seems to me that micorsoft, being the sceaming little f*ckers that they are, want to stop the of PHP image galleries, or many download sites powered by PHP. Why? because we should all thank microsoft, bow down and use ASP and IIS.... no, I think not.

Any microsoft people (ok it unlikely) who read this might want to conider that with a little mod_rewrite rull I could make gallery.php look like its gallery.hmtl on the server, or indeed a .asp file. It really dosn't stop me, or make any thing a problem. But... it still totaly out of order, who the hell do they think they effecitvely telling me what urls I can see, and what I can't. You don't own the internet, you don't own me and in the case of this url, it was just some one makeing an orange out of plastercine.

I am disguested by this, because there is no way you can justify it, you can say galleries are porn, or that downloads are viruses, or pirated software, but then why block only the .php files. Do evil pornographers and dodgy software writers only use PHP? No, I think not, so all I can think of is that they don't like the use of Open source code, its really easy to get a gallery working in php. But if you do happen to have a page called gallery, don't expect to be able to send it using msn.....

I just read this on the BBC: 
A series of large explosions have taken place near Hemel Hempstead, in Hertfordshire.
The blast is thought to have happened at about 0600 GMT, in the vicinity of the Bunsfield Oil depot, close to the junction 8 of the M1 motorway.

Residents in the area, which is 10 miles from Luton Airport, reported hearing a "loud boom".

More to follow.

I head it, I happened to be awake then, doing this and that. Sounded like the roof coming off my flat. Now I don't really live near there, closer to Junction 5 so its a good old distance from here. But I head it, I FELT it... that must have been one hell of a big bang...

In the article http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4453820.stm it says that according to an  Amnesty International poll 25% of people think its a womens own fault if she is raped after shes been flurting, wearing skimpy clothing or drinking.

All I can say about that is that 25% must be the same as the level of complete and utter morons in this country. It is NEVER a womens fault if she is raped. It dosn't matter if she is pissed off her skull, wearing a skirt thats more or less a belt and keeps flashing her tits at people... who cares? she should still be safe on the streets from low life scum.

As far as I am conserned, a women should be safe to do what she wants, wear what she wants with out the risk of being raped, and its never her fault if some total peice of shit should come along and rape her. Its the rapists fault and they should be strung up by their balls.

Rape is the second most hanus crime some one can commit, second only to child abuse, I mean its even worse then murder. Because if your dead, at least you don't have to live with it.

Rape affects people for years, its just nasty. I would never grass on a friend unless they where a rapist of child abuser, then I'd kick the living shit out of them, and personaly take them to the police station.

I am just sickened that 25% of people would blame the women, but then I guess thats probley 25% of people that would rape a women, then blame her. So if you think its her fault, then your a rapist. You know you are, you want to say she made you do it... she made you hold her down and do such a nasty thing. Even to think that makes you a low life. Seriously, how can any one ever say that?

Ok, so this really winds me up.

If I do a google.com search of "site:www.underworld.uk.com" the results I get are actualy for this site, a lot of the pages have been indexed.

How ever, if I do the same search on google.co.uk all the results are at least 6 months out of date, all the pages are from old stuff before I even wrote the current site.

Whats with that? How come the indexs are so out of date? Whats more why are they differant, do us in the UK not deserve an upto date index? The site is a .uk.com so surely it should be indexed? But no....

Personaly I think thats some what out of order, come on google, get it togeather! 

This article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4359570.stm shows that you really can buy any thing on ebay. Not only can you get a whole range of funky thing on ebay, from books to cars, shades to houses. Every thing is avalible on ebay.

So, what do you want to day? A child perhaps. Well on china's ebay even that can be found. For what is actualy very little £2000 you can have a charming baby boy. Want a girl? not a problem they are even more of a bargin at around a £1000. A steal?

Well, probably not. Lets face it purchase price is very little of the cost of a child, when you look closer your'll see that the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of you average child is actualy prohibertorly high.

First off, it dosn't say if the children come with batteries, or even a set of clothing. Not to mention these are used babies, though I guess they are "as new".

Then for the next 16 years your suck with the little blighters. Clothing alone is going to cost way more then a couple of grand. Then food? Unlike much of the things for sale babies need feeding. That to costs.

Personaly I wouldn't want one. I have no idea why any one would, it just seems like a way to spend money on some thing thats not even all that much fun. Its going to crap on you, piss on you and probably even vomit on you... oh what fun that would be.

And, worst of all, at the end of it all it will even probably hate you for all kinds of things.

So, go on, buy a baby... but don't forget, it will cost you, just remember the TCO.

Ever wondered why people are willing to stand in the rain and snow, wind and hale just to sign you up for a charity donation?

Well, it simple, they are paid to. There is a company that does most of the fund raising for a lot of big charities. Not a problem in it self, its good if you can make some money for a charity. I my self have signed up in the past to do my bit.

What I didn't know before, and what basically disgusts me is that the company is making a profit from the donations we make.

How does it work? Simply this. They take your bank details and debit your account by £6.50 or what ever donation you want to make. Then, for the first 12 months this goes entirely to the company. The charity doesn't make a penny.

So, on the occasion that I donated it was unlucky that with in 6 months my financial situation changed and where £10 a month wasn't a problem, it became one. So, I canceled the direct debit. I felt bad but I thought at least I donated £60 to a charity I believe in.

But NO!!! I haven't actually donated a single penny to them, in fact the poor girl that signed me up probably got in trouble for me canceling my Direct Debit. That's how it works.

The fund raisers have rules, one is to push that it's a long term commitment, of at least a year. Obviously after the first year, they don't care because that's the charities cut, but they don't tell you that when you sign up.

Now, don't get me wrong. I don't think people should stand in the rain for nothing, or that the company is wrong to make money. What I do think is wrong how ever is that for a whole year nothing goes to the charity. I would have thought it would be fair if it was a 50/50 split, at least then for the people that cancel the charity got some thing.

The company makes a small fortune, its profitable and expanding like lightening. Claiming its doing it all out of some kind of wish to make a difference. They higher people that believe, from what I can tell they are often the kind of fake, plastic people that believe what ever the last person said. Then they push them to make there 3 donations a day, and if they don't with in the first day on the job the managers start to give you shit. Threaten you with 24 hours notice, and are very rude.

Obviously I have never worked in this area, its not me. So how do I know what going on? Well, I sent in my little spy. She's reported back to me and after the abysmal conditions she was forced to stay in during her 2 day training course its not really gotten better. She's been given verbal abuse by her team leader and manager. Spat on by some guy in the street for no good reason.

So, in the end I am never going to sign up with some one in the street again. I'd rather put my money in a box, or donate directly some way. I am not going to be paying for dialog direct to higher plastic freaks and charity zealots that always seem to try and delay me when I am going some where. At best I think all these companies do to help is advertise the charity. Nothing a good poster campaign couldn't do better. I mean let's face it, stopping people in the street if hardly an effective way of informing people or getting them on your side.

A couple of weeks ago I was getting a new supply of books in the local borders and I was seriously surprised to find book by Larry Niven that I hadn't seen before. Even more when I realized it was a sequel to "Dragons of Heorot".... Beowulf's children.

So, I brought a copy and went home all excited. Now, I got other books as well so I started reading Revelation Space. But the women, she likes Niven and particularly liked the Legacy and Dragons of Heorot. So I let her read it first.

Any way it starts to seem a bit strange when people that died in Dragons are alive in Beowulf's children. But she keeps reading for a couple of chapters but its defiantly a bit strange. First of all we though maybe it was some how in between legacy of Heorot and dragons of Heorot. But that doesn't fit really.

So, quick jump the then of the book and with in seconds we know what's going on. Dragons of Heorot and Beowulfs Children are the same damn book!!!

One is the UK title and one the US title... Total pisser but its not the first time that's happened. The borders of infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold is also called "Younge Miles", I have a copy of both of them as well.

Oh well, I am not to upset, but its pissed the women off, she's bitched and moaned for at least 15 minutes now, she's been fucked over, she feels so lost... I even tried to offer her some thing else, but she is just despondent.